Report: Deutsche Bank will have to give up US interests for deal

The headquarters of the Deutsche Bank is reflected in a glass facade in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 02 October 2016.

Photograph: EPA/BORIS ROESSLER

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, will likely have to give up some of its business interests in the United States if it hopes to negotiate a multibillion-dollar fine down to a manageable level, reported German media Sunday.

The most prominent sacrifice would likely be the bank's investment arm in America, according to a report in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, citing financial sources.

Deutsche Bank's stock has swooned in recent weeks, after it came to light that US authorities want to hit it with a 14-billion-dollar fine for its role in selling questionable mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The bank is trying to negotiate a smaller fine so that it can keep its head above water, but US authorities are making demands in exchange for such a deal.

The bank had no comment on the Welt am Sonntag report. Nor did it comment on a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, in which it was reported that the bank was mulling pulling even more operations out of the United States.

"That's much more likely than a sale of its asset management" division, one source told the newspaper.

About a tenth of Deutsche Bank's 100,000 employees work in the United States.

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